CNN is reporting that rescue operations in New Orleans have been suspended because people have been violent toward boat rescuers (I've seen reports of shooting).

David Brooks talks about the storm after the storm in his latest column, what he refers to as the "human storm": "Floods wash away the surface of society, the settled way things have been done. They expose the underlying power structures, the injustices, the patterns of corruption and the unacknowledged inequalities."

What has been revealed when the surface of society has been washed away? Crooked Timber weighs in:

As everyone knows, social order is under severe pressure in New Orleans at the moment, and the media coverage is slowly coming around to analyzing the differential impact of the disaster. The fact that those who have been left behind, or turned into refugees, are disproportionately Africian-American, poor, or elderly is simply impossible to ignore from the media coverage.

When you look at the the white per capita income ($31,971) compared to the black per capita income ($11,332), the picture becomes a little clearer. Most people can understand how the poor would be the ones left behind, perhaps with lack of transportation or money for a hotel. But few people can imagine looking around after the devastation and seeing that the majority of people left behind were of one race.

Does that excuse violence toward rescuers? No. But I've heard some surprisingly racist comments about the situation in New Orleans, from a lot of people who seem to imply that all the African-Americans were simply too stupid to get out of Dodge.